A Cookie for You
by Ryuko Ishida
Summary: It’s Christmas, and Hikaru is simply restless. He tries unsuccessfully to bake some edible cookies, but this is only a slight problem. The bigger problem is, will he be able to gather up enough courage to finally tell Haruhi the truth?


**A Cookie for You**

A fan fiction written by Ryuko Ishida

Ryuko: First time writing an Ouran fanfic here! I've just finished watching the anime and I adore it so darn much that I can't help thinking up these plot bunnies for some Hika-Haru stories. So this is what I have ended up with, adding in a Christmas holiday twist. Enjoy!

Summary: It's Christmas, and Hikaru is simply restless. He tries unsuccessfully to bake some edible cookies, but this is only a slight problem. The bigger problem is, will he be able to gather up enough courage to finally tell Haruhi the truth?

--x-----X-----x---

-Part 1: Failure-

Now, why did he think it was a good idea again?

He stared intensely at his two plates of creation, in which were various pieces of black, coal-like... stuff. If he didn't produce those seemingly inedible substance himself, Hitachiin Hikaru was pretty sure he couldn't figure out what those 'stuff' were, let alone be courageous enough to put one of them into his mouth.

Actually, come to think of it, those supposedly 'cookies' – yes, people, they were indeed cookies, but please took note of the quotation marks – appeared to be anything but. His killer stare didn't vanish but let's face it: glaring daggers into said coal cookies won't make them disappear out of thin air.

Still staring at them some more, and thinking, 'oh, hell with cancer', the lean teenager, in his plain white t-shirt and navy blue track shorts, snatched a piece from the pile in a quick movement.

He dropped that poor cookie even quicker, though, adding in some incoherent mutterings of curse words as his fingers burned with an angry shade of red. Roughly, he rubbed his throbbing fingers against his shirt to ease the pain, except it only seemed to grow even more immensely now with the additional friction – maybe not one of Hikaru's brightest ideas. Trying to ignore the nuisance, he stretched out his other hand, cautiously this time as he tested the temperature. When he was sure he could hold it without burning off his remaining fingers, he held it in front of his face, closely inspecting it with narrowed hawk-like eyes.

"Yup, a hundred percent burnt," he told himself in a somewhat mocking tone. He could even feel the black exterior crumbling into tiny black flakes like darkened pieces of ash under the slight pressure of his fingers. Ignoring the reasonable side of Hikaru within his brain, which was probably yelling, "dude, you can't put that crap into our mouth! It'll give us cancer and a cancerous cell is not a happy cell. Plus, it'll probably taste like...", he shut his inner self by taking a huge bite, right down to the middle of the black circular disk – again, not the best idea.

He definitely couldn't hear that annoying inner voice of his anymore as he chewed savagely, not really savoring the taste. But then again, what kind of wonderful aroma could a brunt cookie offer? 'Delicious' was absolutely not in Hikaru's list of vocabulary in describing his cooking products, but some other word certainly could...

"Ugg!" he moaned, spitting what was left in his mouth into the garbage can that, thankfully, stood very close by. He rapidly retrieved a glass, turned on the tap, and rinsed his mouth thoroughly and only stopped after he couldn't taste anything foul in his mouth anymore.

After that short yet horrid food-tasting session, Hikaru was standing against the kitchen counter, and if it was even possible, he was glaring at the source of his almost-death even harder than before. He had an urge to just yell really loudly, or to kick something really hard, or to just grunt in utter annoyance or... the list could go on and on. But he did none of those; instead, he sighed softly, his good, healthy hand subconsciously found its way through his slightly disarrayed bronze locks.

"What the hell am I doing?" He asked, aiming the question at no one in particular.

---o-----O-----o---

Darkened room.

Restless shifting against the sheets.

Tired yawning.

Cool air attacking his bare chest.

With a sluggish arm, the still half-asleep young man patted around for certain familiar warmth of presence beside him... and found none. All of a sudden, he jolted up, wide awake. The bed underneath him creaked piercingly under his sharp, abrupt movement.

"Hikaru?" He wasn't about to panic. Not many things would make him do so, but there _was_ one exception...

"Hikaru?" He whispered louder this time; he could hear the blood pumping in his ears in accordance to his heartbeat, which was a bit quickened than usual. However, before he could call a third time, something else tugged his attention away.

He sniffed the air once, taking in, at first a fairly pleasant sweet scent, then a rather fowl odor took its place – something that reminded him of burnt food. As fast as he had snapped his eyes open just a few minutes ago, he lips tucked into a small, lop-sided smile – a knowing smile.

---o-----O-----o---

He should be working hard on what was supposedly to be his third batch of cookies; true, he had a spatula in one hand, and a big mixing bowl with various ingredients in his other, but his mind had drifted away a while back while staring out at the window of the kitchen, which faced the backyard of the house. His continuous and laborious action of mixing stopped without much of his notice as his eyes wafted emptily to the reflection of the window that showed his expressionless face, the vacant darkness that was occupying still further behind him and then beyond the thin layer of glass that displayed a contrasting scenery.

Even though it was supposed to be a backyard, which normally wouldn't get anyone's attention, the twins' parents apparently still thought it was important for the garden to be as presentable as ever. Thus, the decorations that signify the coming of the Christmas holiday that were hung tastefully through every aspect and insignificant corners of the garden by the numerous of servants and gardeners they had – the colored lights, thin streamers and a few statues of Frosty the Snowman and various Christmas symbols created out of the stout evergreen bushes that were the proud creations of the gardeners – just reflected blindingly back to Hikaru. It reminded him that once again, their parents had failed to stay with them for a few, short days because of their business meetings.

He understood the business was important for their parents, and he tried not to think so harshly about it. But sometimes, at times like this, for example, when he was just alone and too preoccupied in his head that dangerous thoughts were leaking into his brain, he couldn't help but selfishly wished that his father and mother, for once, could leave their work and spend some time with him and his brother. He could barely remember the last time the four of them had had a proper dinner together without the phone ringing every twenty minutes concerning contracts and such that would disrupt the flow of conversation.

He envied those commoners every now and then for their complete families. Sure, they would have their ups and downs but at the end of the day, most matters could be resolved and the perfect image of a happy family would emerge once more. But then again, he knew not every family was a happy, complete one – he wasn't that naïve, after all.

Take Haruhi, for example – she was raised almost genuinely by her father alone as her mother had passed away early in her childhood. Her family was broken by the hands of inevitable death but that didn't cause a complete break down, did it? If it did, he wouldn't be able to see the current Haruhi – a girl with the most harmless, innocent of smiles and occasional doses of sarcasm who was initially optimistic in most accounts, loving to her father and loyal to her friends – the Haruhi that he had fallen deeply, undeniably in love with.

'Oh great,' Hikaru groaned, mentally banging his head on an imaginary wall, 'why does every thought that I had eventually lead back to her?' He placed the metallic bowl down with unnecessary force and unconsciously licked away the bits of dough that had managed to get stuck to the tips of his fingers. It was useless, he figured, to try and run away from this foreign feeling. Up until the time when he first met Fujioka Haruhi, it was only himself and Kaoru; intermittently, though, after the two brothers had joined the Host Club, they had become more friendly and tolerable around their school peers. Their ever-growing wit and joking nature created a reputation for themselves, and they were happy to take it all in even though the twins knew that it was all in the exterior.

To their school acquaintance, they were always attached to each other – the Hitachiin twins – one rarely seen without the other close behind. But in Haruhi's eyes, they were acknowledged as individuals – Kaoru was Kaoru, and he was Hikaru, just by himself. This fact, at first, shocked the brothers. How could a mere stranger who was only in their class for a few months long managed to tell them apart when all the other people, who had known them for years, still couldn't tell? It thrilled them to realize that there was someone out there who could tell the difference, and accept that difference; it was just that they hadn't met this person until now.

This was the first thing that had caused the twins to accept her into their world and in addition, triggered the friendship that had established itself among the trio easily and naturally.

Hikaru could hardly remember when he had start feeling different towards his friend. He would figure that the first major trait that stood out and caught his immediate attention was that despite Haruhi being a female, she was definitely different from most girls he had come to know. Her reactions – whether it was towards Tamaki-sempai's constant cooing, or the twins' one of many jokes and teasing – were always unexpected and surprising. Her invisible shield that blocked out all the Hitachiin charms with the use of sarcastic remark had become something usual around them but it did give them quite a shock at first when the two males had failed to charm the new young lady in their first attempt. They had never encountered this type of reaction before; usually, female population just naturally hyperventilated in their presence but Haruhi was... One would even call it indifferent. That was it. She was always cool and collected.

Almost nothing could scare the girl, as had been proven by their little competition where the result was fruitless. However, despite the tough, calm exterior, Haruhi wasn't invincible – she had times when her weakness was exposed, and Hikaru was glad to know that he was there to comfort her that one time during their date, even though it was wholly his fault as Tamaki-sempai reminded him. Perhaps, it was at that moment when Hikaru had witnessed the more fragile side of her, that the feeling, the need to protect her, began to blossom unknowingly inside.

Since now he knew how he felt towards his friend, and he had decided not to be a coward and run away from it (he knew he couldn't anyway), Hikaru understood there was only one sensible thing that he had to do in order to get rid of the anxiety every time he had to deal with when ever they were alone, or had accidental physical contact of any sort: tell her the truth. Easier said than done, as most people would agree.

But he wasn't called Hitachiin Hikaru for nothing – he would never give up without a fight. And that was what he proposed to himself. Well, it wasn't necessarily a 'fight' in literal sense, but casualties were inevitable. For example, his poor burning red fingers and near-dead taste buds became victims and had suffered tonight. No matter, he told himself as flames of determination flew high again, this was only the starters. Driven by a new sense of fresh energy, Hikaru grabbed the forgotten bowl and spatula and was about to return to his work when something stopped him.

Hikaru turned to the source of noise that had caused him to stop what he was doing just in time to witness the mirror image of himself taking a bite off the deadly, black stuff he called cookies. He couldn't help but snigger because he had predicted the reaction of his brother – and his prediction was quite accurate as Kaoru first paled at the nasty taste, then spit out it out rather vilely, and finally dug for a glass to pour water in for a rinse.

However, what his brother said next shut Hikaru up pretty quickly, "what the hell is that?"

"You didn't know what it is and you put it in your mouth?" Hikaru shot back, all traces of laughter disappeared.

"Well, if I've known earlier that it could kill me, I would've stayed far away from it," Kaoru replied, giving the cookies a dark look, inching away from the plates comically.

"It's not going to kill you," Hikaru rolled his eyes, "cancerous cells, maybe, but they're cookies – definitely edible materials."

"In that case, maybe I should say this," the latest victim told Hikaru in a cheerful tone, "my dear brother, you've just taken baking to a whole new level."

"Gee, thanks," Hikaru returned his brother's sarcasm.

"I mean, seriously," Kaoru picked up another failed product to prove his point, "how did you manage to make the exterior so crunchy and over-cooked, and the interior so gooey and, well... uncooked? It's pure genius!" Hikaru had had about enough of sarcastic negative remarks from his loving brother tonight. So cooking wasn't really his thing, even someone blind would have noticed by now; Kaoru really had no need to point out the obvious. Hikaru decided to ignore him and went back to mixing the ingredients, hoping his brother would go back to bed and leave him be. He quickly found out that it was not going to happen any time soon.

"So, who are the cookies for?" Kaoru asked with curiosity sparkling in his eyes even though he could already half guess – he wasn't blind to things that were happening around him, especially when they concern his brother.

"No one," the young man who was engaged in his task replied a bit too quickly.

"Really?" Kaoru leaned back against the white marble counter, watching Hikaru with a knowing smile as it crept slowly to his lips; he knew he was getting to him.

"They're for myself, all right?" He didn't look up when he gave his twin a second answer. Kaoru's smile widened.

"You've suddenly become so addicted to cookies that you have to bake yourself some at two o'clock on Christmas morning. I'm not stupid, Hikaru."

At that moment, Hikaru knew that he had been busted, just like all those times in the past when his slightly younger sibling had seen through his plans. All the same, he wasn't the kind of person to back down, so he stayed silent and continued to stir despite seeing Kaoru gave him a victorious grin.

When Hikaru persist his silence, his brother asked, "So, you need any help?"

This caused Hikaru to snort with laughter, "you think you can do this better than me?"

"No, but I think we can do this better together rather than just wasting the ingredients solely in your hands," Kaoru replied sensibly.

"Good point," with that, he threw his twin a very black, nasty-looking metallic plate, "you can start helping me by scrubbing the burnt bits out so I can put the dough on it later."

"Oh yeah, leave me with the dirtiest jobs," Kaoru frowned but listened to his sibling's direction all the same.

"Hey, you offered," Hikaru grinned brightly, his heart seemingly not as heavy as before. He glanced at the digital clock on the microwave that was sitting near his side, and noticed that there were only a few hours left before the winter sun would rise and brought its unknown future with it. With his brother's help, Hikaru felt more than anything else that a plate of edible cookies could be achieved.

---x-----X-----x---

Ryuko: So what did you guys think? Give me some comments please! And I'll update as soon as I can. Reminder that this is a two part story (meant to be a one-shot but I always managed to make it longer), so tune in for more!


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